*** NEW CONTEST ***

Win a G-Technology ArmorLock Portable SSD from WD
https://hexus.net/tech/features/storage/147542-win-g-technology-armorlock-portable-ssd-wd/

This contest is GLOBAL.

Seems that AMD's GPU division wants to join Intel in releasing products at absolute joke of a price point. The 6700 XT is priced like a 3070 but it's similar to a 3060 Ti in Raster performance and slower in Ray Tracing. Apparently even AMD's own internal testing showed this according to AMD themselves so they 110% knew.



If you have the choice, I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole and instead get the 3060 Ti or 3070

The Wednesday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Amnesia Rebirth has sold over 100,000 copies, but has proven divisive
https://www.pcgamer.com/amnesia-rebirth-has-sold-over-100000-copies-but-has-proven-divisive/
Amnesia Rebirth released at the tail-end of 2020, in the thick of a holiday season crowded with new Assassin’s Creed and Call of Duty games, not to mention Cyberpunk 2077. Despite all that, the psychological horror game has still managed to sell more than 100,000 copies according to Frictional Games, but in a post-mortem published today it reflected on some of the more controversial aspects of the game, writing that these proved more divisive than the studio had expected.

Teamfight Tactics hit 10 million daily players at a recent peak
https://www.pcgamer.com/teamfight-tactics-draws-10-million-daily-players-at-its-peaks/
For a few months in 2019, it seemed like autobattlers were all anyone could talk about, but the spotlight moved on pretty quickly. That doesn't mean no one is playing them: Riot says that League of Legends' Teamfight Tactics mode can draw 10 million players per day in the period following a big update. (For context, the entire Epic Game store averaged 31.3 million daily active players in 2020.)

GOG has a new sale and also see the release of a new game:

• The new Midweek Sale features cute games with up to 88% discounts during the next 3 days: https://www.gog.com/promo/20210317_midweek_sale
• And the game Saviors of Sapphire Wings / Stranger of Sword City Revisited lands on the store with a 20% discount until the 23rd: https://www.gog.com/game/saviors_of_sapphire_wings_stranger_of_sword_city_revisited

Steam has seven new deals/sales, including five Midweek Madness deals:

• The new daily deal is X-Morph: Defense, that has a demo, 90% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/408410/XMorph_Defense/
• Farming Simulator 19 is 33% off until Friday: https://store.steampowered.com/app/787860/Farming_Simulator_19/
• The X franchise is between 40 and 80% off until Friday 19th: https://store.steampowered.com/publisher/egosoft/sale/x4midweekmadness
• Crusader Kings III is free to try and also 20% off until Sunday 21st: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1158310/Crusader_Kings_III/
• Heliborne Collection is going to be 55% off until the 23rd: https://store.steampowered.com/app/433530/Heliborne_Collection/
• The Ubisoft Celebration Sale comes with up to 80% discounts until the 29th: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/ubisoftmidweek
• And publisher Nacon has its games up to 90% off until the 31st: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/Nacon_PublisherSale_2021

The Humble Store has a new Rockstar Sale with up to 70% discounts during the next 5 days. The keys are for Steam and the Rockstar Social Club: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/rockstar-week-sale/

Fanatical celebrates St. Patrick's Day with an extra 7% discount with the code LUCKY7.

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

NVIDIA GeForce 461.92 WHQL driver available for download
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/nvidia-geforce-461-92-whql-driver-available-for-download/
NVIDIA has released a brand new driver for its graphics cards. According to the release notes, the NVIDIA GeForce 461.92 WHQL driver is a Game Ready driver for Overwatch as it adds official support for NVIDIA Reflex (which is available on the PTS).
In addition, this driver fixes a number of bugs and issues. For instance, it fixes pixelated black dots or artifacts on characters’ skin in Red Dead Redemption 2. It also resolves some blue-screen crashes that could occur when connecting/disconnecting to/from the Samsung 8K TV. Additionally, it brings shader cache optimizations to reduce intermittent stutter on some PC configurations.
>> Available from here.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Silent Hill 2: Enhanced Edition adds support for dynamic resolution, restores specularity
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/silent-hill-2-enhanced-edition-adds-support-for-dynamic-resolution-restores-specularity/
The team behind the Enhanced Edition of Silent Hill 2 has released a new update that adds dynamic resolution support and restores specularity.
In case you weren’t aware of, Silent Hill 2: Enhanced Edition is a collection of mods that enhances the game and makes it playable to all modern systems. This is a must-have for all Silent Hill 2 fans, and we highly recommend downloading it.
With this update, items and enemies can now shine thanks to the newly added specularity. In addition, your flashlight (and environmental lights) will make shinny objects even more shinny.
This latest update for Silent Hill 2: Enhanced Edition also adds a new ScreenMode. Additionally, it introduces a new dynamic resolution option. As such, PC gamers can now adjust their resolution via the in-game settings.

Bannerlord mod turns Mount and Blade 2 into an 800-player MMO
https://www.pcgamer.com/bannerlord-mod-turns-mount-and-blade-2-into-an-800-player-mmo/
If you've been looking for a different way to play Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord, they don't come much more different than this. Bannerlord Online is a mod that turns Mount and Blade 2 into an 800-player MMO.
Yeah. 800 players in the same world! It's really that big. Jump into the familiar world of Bannerlord, create a character, and explore the sandbox to complete quests and rise to power much like you would in singleplayer… but alongside hundreds of other players at the same time.

GAMING NEWS

Saints Row : The Third Remastered March 2021 Patch packs performance improvements, fixes bugs
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/saints-row-the-third-remastered-march-2021-patch-packs-performance-improvements-fixes-bugs/
Sperasoft has released a brand new update for Saints Row : The Third Remastered. According to the release notes, this latest update packs various performance improvements, and fixes a number of bugs and issues.

Release date and PC requirements for Dungeons & Dragons co-op action RPG, Dark Alliance
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/release-date-and-pc-requirements-for-dungeons-dragons-co-op-action-rpg-dark-alliance/
Wizards of the Coast has announced that Dark Alliance, a new co-op action roleplaying game that builds upon the rich lore of the Forgotten Realms in Dungeons & Dragons, will launch on June 22nd. In addition, the team revealed the game’s official PC system requirements.

Super Bomberman R Online is coming soon to PC
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/super-bomberman-r-online-is-coming-soon-to-pc/
Konami has announced that Super Bomberman R Online will be coming soon to PC. Moreover, the game will support cross-play between all platforms.

System Shock Remake and The Fabled Woods will support DLSS
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/system-shock-remake-and-the-fabled-woods-will-support-dlss/
NVIDIA has announced that both System Shock Remake and The Fabled Woods will officially support its DLSS tech. Moreover, the green team has shared some graphs that showcase the performance improvement that PC gamers can expect from DLSS in these games.

Ubisoft warns about phishing emails regarding Far Cry 6
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/ubisoft-warns-about-phishing-emails-regarding-far-cry-6/
Following Capcom’s example, Ubisoft has warned us about some phishing emails regarding Far Cry 6. According to the team, media and content creators have received fake emails from hackers using the Ubisoft domain.

The news, part two:

Fortnite Season 6 goes Primal with wolves, pigs, and Lara Croft
https://www.pcgamer.com/fortnite-season-6-update-patch-notes/
It's new Fortnite Season day! As has become the norm, another interdimensional macguffin has cleared the way for a new wilderness to take over the island. Strap on your survival gear, because the theme for Season 6 is Primal, and there are some feral new residents on Epic's murder island.

Satisfactory is getting a hoverpack that makes building massive factories so much easier
https://www.pcgamer.com/satisfactory-hoverpack-update-4/
Satisfactory is a game of excess. Why build one steel pipe when you could build 10,000? Factories inevitably sprawl outwards and upwards and become crisscrossed with power lines and conveyor belts, and just getting close enough to click on a particular manufacturer or storage unit can feel like wading through a concrete briar patch. I had to build catwalks and ramps on each side of my four-story factory just to make it kind of convenient to get from one floor to another. So yeah: I'm pretty psyched about the hoverpack, the most convenient addition in Satisfactory's new Update 4.

Satisfactory may get a final tech tier in a future update to wrap up its endgame
https://www.pcgamer.com/satisfactory-may-get-a-tier-9-in-a-future-update-to-wrap-up-its-tech-tree/
Satisfactory's long-awaited Update 4 is out today, and that means a whole lot of new parts to build and then feed into machines that make other parts, to feed into machines that make other other parts, and on and on and on. You can watch my walkthrough of Update 4's new features with game director Mark Hofma in the video above, and read more about all of them here. But I also had to ask Hofma about one thing that isn't in Update 4, because I know other Satisfactory players will want to know: Is there going to be a Tier 9?

Genesis Noir's jazz-infused cosmic investigations begin later this month
https://www.pcgamer.com/genesis-noirs-jazz-infused-cosmic-investigations-begin-later-this-month/
Of all the universes in all of creation, she had to walk into mine. Genesis Noir is a stylish jazz-noir detective story set at the highest planes of existence, a mystery that sends you through time and space in an effort to stop the Big Bang from ever happening.

An open beta for new mech shooter Galahad 3093 starts on Friday
https://www.pcgamer.com/an-open-beta-for-new-mech-shooter-galahad-3093-starts-on-friday/
At first glance, upcoming mech game Galahad 3093 looks a lot like Hawken. It's strictly a multiplayer game, and its mechs—"lances," in the game's parlance—are small (at least compared to the lumbering behemoths in games like Battletech), lightly armed, and extremely mobile. But David Whatley, CEO of developer Simutronics, told me ahead of next week's open beta test that Hawken actually had "zero influence" on the game's design: It's rooted in the studio's old CyberStrike series, which dates all the way back to 1993.

Jade Raymond launches a new Sony-backed indie studio
https://www.pcgamer.com/jade-raymond-launches-a-new-sony-backed-indie-studio/
Less than two months after her split with Stadia, Assassin's Creed co-creator Jade Raymond has announced on the https://blog.playstation.com/2021/03/16/introducing-haven-a-new-montreal-based-independent-studio/#sf243985526" target="_blank">PlayStation Blog that she's founded a new Montreal-based indie studio called Haven, which is "already hard at work on an unannounced IP."
>> Maybe it will come to PC, if only as an Epic Store exclusive.

Uh oh, Kazakus is coming back to Hearthstone
https://www.pcgamer.com/uh-oh-kazakus-is-coming-back-to-hearthstone/
(...)The original Kazakus rotated out Standard in April 2018, but a new version has been designed for the Forged in the Barrens expansion, which releases on March 30. The new card is called Kazakus, Golem Shaper, and this time he's creating bespoke minions rather than spells. As before, you'll be given the choice of creating a 1, 5 or 10 Mana card, but this time it will have corresponding stats of 1/1, 5/5 or 10/10. Next, you make two Discover choices for its effects, which will include effects such as 'Taunt' and 'Battlecry: Draw 2 cards'.

Call of Duty: Warzone bans over 30,000 cheaters in latest wave
https://www.pcgamer.com/call-of-duty-warzone-bans-over-30000-cheaters-in-latest-wave/
Activision continues to turn up the heat on Call of Duty: Warzone cheaters in 2021. Following a massive ban wave last month and a recommitment to thwarting hackers, Raven Software issued another wave today targeting cheaters on PC. Activision confirmed to PC Gamer that today's bans penalized over 30,000 accounts.

Riot says there's 'no evidence' to support allegations of sexual misconduct against CEO
https://www.pcgamer.com/riot-dismisses-allegations-of-sexual-misconduct-against-ceo/
A Riot Games board committee says a third-party investigation has found "no evidence" that Riot CEO Nicolo Laurent "harassed, discriminated, or retaliated against" Sharon O'Donnell, a former executive assistant who was fired in July 2020 and subsequently sued Laurent and the company for sexual harassment. The committee has recommended that no actions be taken against Laurent.
>> Alright, case dismissed. Ah, no! That what matters is what the justice says...

Emily is Away 3 brings back 2008, for better or worse, next month
https://www.pcgamer.com/emily-is-away-less3-brings-back-2008-for-better-or-worse-next-month/
The Emily is Away games are visual novels about the end of the instant messaging era, time capsules of this century's first decade. The second, Emily is Away Too, was set in 2006 at the end of AIM's life and the beginning of social media. The third game, which will be out next month, moves to 2008 and the time of Facebook—I mean Facenook, ha ha, who would call something a name that goofy, a book for faces, how ridiculous.

Respawn may be the first game developer to be nominated for an Oscar
https://www.pcgamer.com/respawn-may-be-the-first-game-developer-to-be-nominated-for-an-oscar/
Apex Legends developer Respawn Entertainment might just have become the first game developer to be nominated for an Oscar—but I'm afraid it wasn't because of BT-7274's heartfelt performance in Titanfall 2.
Colette, a 24-minute Guardian documentary following one of the last surviving members of the French resistance in Nazi-occupied Germany, has been shortlisted for best documentary short subject at this year's Academy Awards.

Both Euro and American Truck Simulators to get a total lighting overhaul
https://www.pcgamer.com/both-euro-and-american-truck-simulators-to-get-a-total-lighting-overhaul/
We do love a bit of trucking here at PC Gamer, but I'll readily admit that SCS's big rig sims are a bit bland to look at. Fortunately, both Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator just became a whole lot prettier, thanks to a new lighting update introduced over the weekend.

Doom Eternal goes high fantasy in new Ancient Gods Part Two trailer, out tomorrow
https://www.pcgamer.com/doom-eternal-goes-high-fantasy-in-the-ancient-gods-part-two-out-this-week/
Doom Eternal is calling it a day with the final chunk of singleplayer DLC in The Ancient Gods, Part 2 tomorrow, March 18. Check out the launch trailer above.
The Ancient Gods, Part 2 follows up the excellent, but ridiculously challenging Part 1 with the final chapter of the Doom Slayer saga that began in Doom 2016. If you've yet to catch up, go do that, but here's the gist: The Doom Slayer is taking the fight to the Dark Lord, Hell's big boss, and you'll work through ancient Sentinel settlements, the celestial realm of the World Spear, and even make a return to Earth before hitting up Immora (I don't know either) to seal up the underworld for good.

Necromunda: Hired Gun looks like a 40K Dishonored, launches this summer
https://www.pcgamer.com/necromunda-hired-gun-looks-like-a-40k-dishonored-launches-this-summer/
Necromunda: Hired Gun, a new Warhammer 40K FPS from Focus Home Interactive and Streum On Studio, has suddenly appeared on the Windows Store with a release scheduled for June 1st, 2021.

Either TSMC's 7nm and GDDR6 are more expensive than we think, or AMD has really lost its mind with these new cards.

By the way, here's the review roundup of this new card: https://videocardz.com/106755/amd-radeon-rx-6700-xt-review-roundup

Yea, at the beginning of the gen, I was thinking that going Samsung was a mistake but after all the gpus came out, Samsung was certainly the better choice for Nvidia. TSMC stopped giving Volume discounts to their partners and Samsung was cheaper from the beginning even before TSMC stopped giving discounts. Then on top of that, TSMC has a lot more customers competing for allocation vs Samsung doesn't have nearly as many.

AMD still made the correct choice by going TSMC due to how their architecture is. It's just that Nvidia's architecture is able to rectify Samsung's process node deficiencies while being able to produce more gpus at a lower price.

In other hardware news...

Micron to exit 3dxpoint production, sell fab

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2021/03/16/2194110/0/en/Micron-Updates-Data-Center-Portfolio-Strategy-to-Address-Growing-Opportunity-for-Memory-and-Storage-Hierarchy-Innovation.html


Samsung warns of deepening semiconductor shortage

https://www.ft.com/content/7e5e2d0f-3aa4-412b-898c-15acda4adb2e

Intel hires "I'm a Mac" guy to make new ads mocking Macs and praising PC (Kinda cringe)

nah that freaking hilarious

EA Play is Coming to PC for Xbox Game Pass Members Starting Tomorrow

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2021/03/17/ea-play-coming-to-pc-for-xbox-game-pass/

The best subscription service keeps on getting better

To give some perspective, I found this:

TSMC Made A Profit Of $1,634 USD Per Wafer, 2.4 Times That Of SMIC
https://www.globaltrends.us/2021/03/tsmc-made-profit-of-1634-usd-per-wafer.html
According to the latest report released by the well-known research institution IC Insights, TSMC’s revenue per wafer increased significantly last year, with revenue per wafer of US$1,634, setting a record high and leading the average price per wafer. In comparison, UMC’s revenue per wafer in 2020 is US$675, while SMIC’s revenue per wafer is US$684, but neither of these two manufacturers is less than TSMC’s revenue per wafer in the same period. half.

Data show that in 2019, TSMC’s revenue per wafer was $1,530, and from 2014 to 2020, TSMC’s revenue per wafer has continued to grow. According to IC Insights, TSMC’s revenue per wafer in 2020 will increase significantly, which is inseparable from its advanced process leading mass production.

We don't know how much Samsung gets, but I doubt it's anywhere close to that number.